APS Diplomat Recorder articles from April 2009

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from April 2009

ARAB AFFAIRS - Mar 29 - Sleiman Describes Ties With Syria As 'Excellent'.
April 4, 2009... President Michel Sleiman describes Lebanese-Syrian ties as "excellent", adding that Arab reconciliations reflected positively on Lebanon. Sleiman arrived in Doha Mar 29 afternoon to attend the two-day Arab League summit, which will convene on...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Mar 30 - Arab Leaders Reject Arrest Warrant Against Sudan's Bashir.
April 4, 2009... Arab leaders concluded their annual summit on Mar 30 with a strong message of support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Darfur. "We stress...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Mar 31 - UK Forces Hand Over Base In Basra.
April 4, 2009... British forces on hand over control of their base in Basra to the US military, symbolically completing Britain's withdrawal from Iraq six years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. "We have shed blood together and...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Apr 1 - PA Warns On Dissolution.
April 4, 2009... The new Israeli government warns that a refusal to continue serious peace negotiations intended to establish a Palestinian state could force the PA to dissolve itself. The warning, by a senior PA official, came only a day after Israel's new...

AFGHANISTAN - Mar 29 - Nato Seeks $2bn To Bolster Afghan Forces.
April 4, 2009... Nato is seeking $2bn a year from the international community to bolster Afghanistan's security forces, according to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary-general of the alliance. Drumming up support for US plans to expand and sustain the Afghan...

IRAQ - Mar 29 - Sunni Unrest Challenges Iraqi Government.
April 4, 2009... Backed by US troops and combat helicopters, Iraqi soldiers sweep into a central Baghdad neighbourhood, arresting US-allied Sunni fighters to clamp down on a violent two-day uprising that challenged the Iraqi government's authority. But the...

ISRAEL - Mar 29 - Little Chance Of Swap Deal With Hamas, Says Israeli Official.(Oved Yehezkel )(Brief article)
April 4, 2009... An Israeli official close to PM Ehud Olmert says that a prisoner swap deal with Hamas is impossible in the days remaining before Olmert is replaced by Benjamin Netanyahu. Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel told Army Radio that contacts are...

ISRAEL - Apr 2 - Israeli Police Question Lieberman.
April 4, 2009... Israel's FM Avigdor Lieberman, stoked fresh controversy when it emerged that the far-right politician spent much of his second day in office fielding questions from the police about bribery allegations. An Israeli police spokesman said:...

PALESTINE - Apr 2 - Fatah-Hamas Talks Break Up Again.(Brief article)
April 4, 2009... Talks between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah on a power-sharing government broke up for a second time in a month without making any headway. The talks came to a halt just a day after they began in Cairo. Foreign Ministry spokesman...

SUDAN - Mar 29 - Sudan President Defies Arrest Warrant.(Omar al-Bashir)
April 4, 2009... President Omar al-Bashir, is given a red carpet welcome as he arrived in Qatar, defying an international arrest warrant to attend an Arab League summit. A smiling Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes...

TURKEY - Mar 29 - AKP Wins Turkey Poll With Smaller Majority.
April 4, 2009... Turkey's ruling party win local elections but with a loss of support that may limit its ambitions and prompt a new focus on dealing with the economic crisis. With almost all ballots counted, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) outstripped...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Apr 9 - UK Worried About Jerusalem Demolitions.
April 11, 2009... British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expresses his country's concern over the demolition of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem, saying the holy city should be the capital of both Israel and the future Palestinian state. "We view with real...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Apr 6 - US Will Never Be At War With Islam, Obama Tells Turkey.
April 11, 2009... Barack Obama seizes upon his first symbolism-laced visit to the Muslim world as US president to declare that the USis not and never will be at war with Islam. From the well of Turkey's Parliament, Obama warned "you cannot put out fire with...

IRAN - Apr 8 - Iran Charges American Journalist With Spying.
April 11, 2009... An American journalist jailed for more than two months in Iran has been charged with spying for the US, dashing hopes of a quick release days after her parents arrived in the country seeking her freedom. The espionage charge is far more serious...

IRAN - Apr 9 - Ahmadi-Nejad Opens Atomic Fuel Plant.
April 11, 2009... Iran declares major advances in its controversial nuclear drive as President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad opens an atomic fuel plant and announced the testing of two high capacity centrifuges. Ahmadi-Nejad's announcements at a function in central...

IRAQ - Apr 6 - Car Bomb In Baghdad Kills 18, Wound 62.(Brief article)
April 11, 2009... A string of bombing attacks in Baghdad kills at least 18 people and wounded 62 others, as the US military reported its first combat death in Iraq in about three weeks. The first attack occurred in the morning when a car bomb exploded in the...

IRAQ - Apr 10 - Suicide Attack Kills 5 G.I.'S And 2 Iraqis In Northern City.
April 11, 2009... Five American soldiers and two members of the Iraqi security forces are killed in a brazen suicide truck bombing at one of the entrances to the main military base in the northern city of Mosul, a US military spokesman said. It was the deadliest...

ISRAEL - Apr 5 - Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert Faces New Charges.
April 11, 2009... Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz's announces former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert is facing charges of fraud and breach of trust in connection with a government-run investment centre. This is the third set of charges that Olmert is facing. He...

EGYPT - Apr 8 - Egypt Probes Group Suspected Of Ties To Hizbullah.
April 11, 2009... Egyptian authorities are investigating a group suspected of ties with the Lebanese group Hizbullah and of planning attacks in Egypt. It said in a statement it had information the group, which had 49 members, was preparing attacks and had been...

LEBANON - Apr 5 - Lebanese PM Calls For Unity Government After Elections.(Prime Minister Fouad Siniora)
April 11, 2009... Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora calls for the formation of a unity government after a June legislative election but said any minority in the new parliament should not be granted veto power in cabinet. Siniora, a member of the anti-Syrian coalition,...

LEBANON - Apr 10 - Egypt Holds Member Of Lebanon's Hizbullah, Says Nasrallah.(Brief article)
April 11, 2009... Hizbullah says the Egyptian authorities had arrested a Hizbullah member who had been working to supply military equipment to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, helped by up to 10 others. But Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denied allegations by...

PALESTINE - Apr 6 - Palestinians Are Focus In Abbas Visit To Baghdad.(Mahmoud Abbas)
April 11, 2009... The president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, visits Iraq for the first time since the American invasion in 2003, meeting with Iraqi leaders to garner support for the Palestinian leadership and Iraq's Palestinian community. The...

PALESTINE - Apr 8 - Jewish Settlers Rampage Through Village.(Brief article)
April 11, 2009... Dozens of Israelis from a Jewish settlement where a Palestinian killed a youth last week rampaged through a West Bank Arab village, smashing car -windows and damaging homes, residents and medics said. Some 12 Palestinians were wounded in...

PALESTINE - Apr 10 - Abbas Move To Form New Govt Denied.(Mahmoud Abbas )
April 11, 2009... A senior Palestinian official denies that President Mahmoud Abbas intends to form a new Palestinian government next week. Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the PLO's Executive Committee said in a statement that "the reports are rootless",...

SAUDI ARABIA - Apr 8 - Kingdom Arrests 11 Al-Qaeda Suspects.
April 11, 2009... Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki says Saudi security forces have arrested 11 Al-Qaeda suspects who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks inside the Kingdom and kidnap security officers and other "useful"...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Apr 16 - OIC Rights Body On Way.
April 18, 2009... The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) held its first meeting to discuss the establishment of an independent and permanent human rights commission. OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu presided over the meeting of the...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Apr 12 - Peres Raises Prospect Of Attacking Iran.
April 18, 2009... In an interview, Israeli President Shimon Peres once again raised the prospect of attacking Iran, saying that if the talks proposed by President Obama did not get Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to "soften" its stance on its civilian...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Apr 15 - US Military Expresses Concern About Perception Of An Iraqi Crackdown On Sunnis.
April 18, 2009... The American military says that it is closely following the arrests of 15 leaders of the Awakening Councils, plus the threatened arrests of five others, but insisted that the detentions were not part of a deliberate Iraqi government campaign...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Apr 16 - Mitchell Due To Meet Netanyahu.(George Mitchell and Benjamin Netanyahu)(Brief article)
April 18, 2009... The US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, is scheduled to meet Israel's PM and FM, in a bid to test the new government's readiness to embark on a fresh regional peace effort. Mitchell was appointed to his post by Barack Obama, the US president,...

AFGHANISTAN - Apr 13 - Taliban Shoot Dead Afghan Politician.
April 18, 2009... A leading female Afghan politician is shot dead after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, which her colleagues had begged her not to attend. Sitara Achakzai was attacked by two gunmen as she arrived at her...

AFGHANISTAN - Apr 15 - No Appeal From Islamic Courts, Says Taliban.
April 18, 2009... A leading Taliban theologian says Pakistan's mainstream courts, including the supreme court, will not be entitled to hear legal challenges to verdicts from Islamic courts fuelling the controversy surrounding an agreement between the Pakistani...

EGYPT - Apr 11 - Press Urges Trial For 'Criminal Hizbullah Leader'.(Hassan Nasrallah )(Brief article)
April 18, 2009... Egyptian media brands the leader of Lebanese movement Hizbullah as a war criminal who should be tried, while an Israeli minister says that Hassan Nasrallah deserved to die. Reacting to the outbursts, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said...

EGYPT - Apr 14 - Egypt Vows To Divulge Details On Hizbullah Attack Plot.(Brief article)
April 18, 2009... A senior Egyptian official says it will reveal "stunning information" in the next few days which will confirm Cairo's recent allegations that Lebanese group Hizbullah planned to carry multiple attacks in Egypt. Hizbullah has denied Egyptian...

IRAN - Apr 12 - World Powers Must Accept A Nuclear Iran.
April 18, 2009... Larijani Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani says world powers must accept the Islamic republic as a nuclear power as top officials vowed no let-up in Tehran's sensitive uranium enrichment drive. Larijani's comments came after the five...

IRAN - Apr 14 - Trial Of US-Iranian Journalist Begins.(Roxana Saberi)
April 18, 2009... Iran's judiciary says that the trial of Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist, on charges of espionage had begun, in defiance of calls by the US administration to release her. Alireza Jamshidi, judiciary spokesman, told reporters that...

IRAN - Apr 15 - Iran Says It Plans New Nuclear Offer.
April 18, 2009... President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran says that he is preparing a new proposal to resolve disputes with the West over Iran's nuclear program, opening the door to talks with the US, the official news agency IRNA reported. Ahmadi-Nejad said...

IRAN - Apr 14 - Iran To Address Nuclear Issue.(Brief article)
April 18, 2009... President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says Iran had prepared proposals to end a stalemate over its nuclear ambitions with six world powers, state television reported. "We have prepared a package that can be the basis to resolve Iran's nuclear problem....

IRAQ - Apr 15 - Parked Car Bomb Kills 10 Policemen In Iraq.
April 18, 2009... Iraqi police say a parked car bomb targeting a passing police convoy in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk has killed 10 policemen and wounded at least 20 people. Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir says all the killed were policemen...

IRAQ - Apr 16 - Suicide Bomber Kills 16 In West Iraq Base.
April 18, 2009... A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives kill at least 16 people and wounded 50 others at a military base in Iraq's western Anbar province, the army and police said. An eyewitness said the bomber was wearing a military uniform...

ISRAEL - Apr 17 -Talks At A Dead End, Says Israel.
April 18, 2009... Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman bluntly tells US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell that a different approach was needed to resolve the Middle East conflict. Lieberman told Mitchell - who came here to press Israel to accept a...

ISRAEL - Apr 17 -Israeli Police Bar Muslims From Prayers At Al-Aqsa.(Brief article)
April 18, 2009... Israeli police bars Arab Palestinian Muslims from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for prayers because thousands were planning to protest the plan of Jewish extremists to pray in the compound. The police restricted the entrance to the...

LEBANON - Apr 13 - Lebanese Soldiers Killed In Ambush.
April 18, 2009... Four Lebanese Army soldiers are killed in the hashish-growing hinterlands of eastern Lebanon when armed men fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their vehicle, in an apparent escalation of the army's recent battles with drug dealers and...

PALESTINE - April 18 - Palestinians Ask US Envoy To Press Israel On 'Two-State Solution'.
April 18, 2009... Palestinian leaders ask the American envoy to the Middle East to press Israel's new government to accept the notion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and other Palestinian...

SUDAN - Apr 13 - Sudan Executes Nine Found Guilty Of Editor's Murder.
April 18, 2009... Sudanese authorities execute nine men found guilty of involvement in the 2006 murder of a newspaper editor, a police source said. "Nine people guilty in this case were executed today", the source said. The case has been a sensitive issue for...